NYC hospital probed after patient catches fire during surgery

Surgical Team Working In Operating Theatre (iStock)

State investigators slammed NYU Langone Medical Center for lapses in safety procedures and communications that resulted in an operating-room fire while a patient was undergoing surgery, The Post has learned.

Probers cited a “communications failure between the surgeon and anesthesiologist,” who wasn’t aware a certain instrument would be used “in the presence of oxygen,” according to the state Health Department’s report on the 2014 blaze which was obtained by The Post under a Freedom of Information Law request.

“It was evident that the hospital failed to provide surgical services that conformed to current standards of practice,” the report said.

It found that NYU Langone was “not in substantial compliance” with federal regulations governing surgery and anesthesia.

The DOH inspected the hospital and declared an “immediate jeopardy situation” on Dec. 30, 2014, because of the lapses.

The OR fire had happened earlier that month, and probers said that “there was no evidence of an immediate plan to prevent the recurrence of fire injury to patients undergoing surgery.”

The name of the patient, nature and date of the surgery, and the type of instrument that started the fire were not revealed in the state report, which was heavily redacted.

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